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Paladin Chronicle by Gixander
Category: Guides Introduction Hello, my name is Gixander. I currently eek out a living on the Fairy server as a fledgling Paladin/Warrior of the Elvaan race; previously I was a Tarutaru White Mage up in the 72 White Mage / 36 Black Mage range. Having got tired of dealing with keeping the party alive from a magical standpoint, I decided to flip to the opposite side of the coin. Now, you may think that White Mages and Paladins have a little bit more of a difference than just two sides of the same coin. This is true, but one of the things I pride myself on is the fact that I do a lot of research into how jobs worked. When I was a White Mage, I had always planned on keeping that as my main. I made certain as I levelled that I opened all of the jobs (all 20) and started playing them. I got them all at least into the dreaded Valkurm Dunes, so I had a bit of first hand experience as to how each job functioned. Even knowing low levels playing tactics (and yes, they are different even from 1-20) helped me to predict what players would do nearing End-Game. This guide is not meant to be a "here's what you are going to do in order to level and here's how to do it". There are too many guides like that scattered across the internet. In addition, many of those guides start out with the immediate disclaimer that the reader will have to "bear with them" since they are now level 75 and writing about experiences a level 1 player will have. BIG DIFFERENCE! The only disclaimer that I will make at this point is that I assume a few things about you as a starting Paladin: * You have levelled Warrior to 37 (subjob-level). As this is still the most popular, it is the only one I've included. * You have 30k, just like I did. This is extremely doable at this stage, and I personally would have had more, but I didn't want to sell any of my 30ish equipment until I was done with it on Paladin. * You have the ability to ride chocobos (since you've been 37 already, you should have this). * I do not assume you have the Airship available. * I do not assume you levelled Sword and Shield, as I did. It helps, but if you didn't you'll get very nice skillups (both are A+ skills). * I assume you do not have any equipment related to the job. * You have completed the Paladin Flag Quest and are sitting as a PLD01/WAR01 wondering what to do next. While this is not a true and accurate assumption of any job, I am writing this guide from the perspective of a San d'Orian citizen. There was no reason for choosing San d'Oria as my starting city with the exception of everything regarding acquiring Paladin occurs in San d'Oria. Later on, I will review the databases and attempt to put information about starting a Paladin from Windurst or Bastok. Layout Any good guide has a nice layout; not necessarily a layout which pleases the eye (with all those funky tables and such that clog up the screen), but one that helps you answer the question "Where is this information?" with the answer "Here it is, right here." This guide is divided, similar to other guides, by level. But underneath that, the following section headers are listed. * Initial Tidbits: This section gives an overview of sorts for the levels, such as what areas you will be heading into, what you should generally be looking for in a party, what the ability to solo in this level range is; may not seem very information heavy, but it helps to know what the outlook for the near future is. * Spells and Abilities: Self-explanatory. Spells are the Paladin's second way of life, following the ever-popular Meat-Shield reference. Your spells, to the onlooker, are nothing more than a red flashing neon sign over your head directing the mob to hit you. This section will help to overcome that idea. Abilties, which for the purposes of shortened section headers will also be the section discussing job traits, covers those extra things that define Paladin versus a Warrior with a severly gimped White Mage subjob. * The Cost of Survival: This section kinda lumps two sections together, one that deals with equipment and its cost, and one that deals with items and their cost. Not only will this cover information pertaining to what new equipment is available, but also a mini cost-comparision of the statistics. While I don't mean to suggest that I know everything about the inner workings of the game, feel free to read this section for more than just "Here's a list of items I can buy." * Locationx3: Because it's shorter than Location Location Location; this section covers the area you are most likely going to be looking to solo or party in. This is basically nothing more than a suggestion of camping area, with a few words on why I'm suggesting this area. * Monsters Galore: Because I didn't give enough information in the Locationx3 section; Monsters Galore starts to review each monster in the area that you will be fighting in this level, and some ideas on what to do to fight them adequately. * Journal: Level by Level: A different viewpoint from the above, this is sort of a mini-journal of what I was learning as I was leveling through this portion of Paladin. Fledgling Paladin, Part I (Levels 1-6) Initial Tidbits So, now you find yourself as a level 1 Paladin sitting (or standing for that matter) in San d'Oria. Your first thought might be: How come nobody is inviting me to a party? I thought Paladins got all the invites! Well, just like everybody else, you have to make it through to level 10ish before people actually want to start partying. Not always true, of course; you might get lucky and find a party who would want to party in the 7-10 range in La Theine Plateau, but these are rare to come by. So, the first ten levels are divided into two groups, with the only difference being a spell and a weaponskill. The first group, levels 1-6, are nothing more than getting used to being a Level 1-6 Warrior with a Level 0.25 White Mage. Yes, I know that's a bit harsh, but for the time being, you are nothing more than a hack-and-slash damage dealer with the ability to throw up a Cure or two. If you choose a Tarutaru, maybe a third Cure as well. Spells and Abilities So, what do you have in the way of Spells and Abilities between levels 1 and 6? Well, for spells, you only have Cure, but unfortunately you don't even have that until level 5. And when you do, you are already way behind the capped skill curve (assuming that you had no skill whatsoever in Healing Magic). I will say this: I spent about an hour capping my Healing Magic out. Take this into consideration: Keeping Healing Magic capped, as with all other skills, HELPS IMMENSLY. You don't have that much MP to begin with, so my suggestion is to go to the Auction House, and go into Food. Under the Sweets-and-Drinks section, you'll find the pies. Grab a stack of Apple Pies, since they are the cheapest and you really don't need the higher tiers of pies just yet. Apple Pies give a few bonuses to statistics, but for our purposes here, the statistical increase we are focusing on is the +25 MP. In my case, at level 5 I had 26 MP base, so 51 MP after eating a Pie. Maybe not a lot of MP to people beginning Paladin from a mage job, but 51 MP allows you to perform 6 Cures before having to heal. 6 Cures versus a standard 3 means less time healing and faster capping of the skill; it also means a little bit more in the lines of survivability as you approach level 10. As far as you are concerned, you only have two job abilities in this level range. At level 1 you have the ever-popular two-hour, Invincible. So, now you are a level 1 Paladin sitting (or standing) in San d'Oria. First thing that you need to do is get some equipment. Jumping from a level 37 Warrior to a level 1 might make you want to fork over the gil to buy those High Quality items. Although it's a well known fact, I'll state it here just in case we've forgotten in those 36 Warrior levels: at the early stages, the High Quality items aren't worth their price. Best thing to do in this case is head into Southern San d'Oria, and head east towards the Mog House. Along the path, you'll find Rosel's Armour and Helbert's Blades. For the first two or three sets of armor, this is where you'll acquire it. After that, it starts getting cheaper on the Auction House, assuming you can find those sets anywhere else. Between the two armor clerks, you can get the entire Bronze Armor set, spending under 1k gil for it all. Afterwards, head next door to Helbert's Blades and buy a Bronze Sword. Now comes the part where it depends on what you've done prior. If you've completed the quest The Brugaire Consortium in Port San d'Oria, you should remember the reward was a Lauan Shield. If not, go ahead and quickly complete this quest; it only requires you to take a few packages and deliver them in the Port area. At this point, you should have the following equipment: Weapon: Bronze Sword Sub: Lauan Shield Head: Bronze Cap Body: Bronze Harness Hands: Bronze Mittens Legs: Bronze Subligar Feet: Bronze Leggings Some of you might have extra things, such as Fortune Egg or Happy Egg in your Ammo slot, or other items (Chariot, Empress, or Emperor bands) that further affect your status. As not everybody will have these depending on when they starting playing, I am not going to include them as a "here, do this or you are wrong" ideal. Heading out Well, don't forget to grab Signet on the way out. Gotta love Signet. My favorite location to start the game has always been West Ronfaure. I found it easier to navigate than East Ronfaure, but I never did figure out why. And now that the Fields of Valor system has been introduced, the fact that the Field Manual is located in the zone makes it even better. For those of you that don't know, Fields of Valor is basically a mini-quest system. You look through 5 pages of lists. Since I have been using these to level, let me show you the explanation as well. Quickest way to describe it? Kill the enemies listed and get extra experience, gil, and some "tabs" that can be used to buy bonuses. Page 1 in West Ronfaure states that you must kill "6 members of the Worm family". Because it didn't specify names of specific monsters, you could kill either Tunnel Worm or Carrion Worm. For this matter, I killed 6 Tunnel Worms. When I did, I ended up hitting level 2 right off the bat. Not bad for a few worms, eh? I have the Empress Band, and I used it before starting. Since at this low level you aren't doing anything more than the usual hack-and-slash to get rid of monsters, I'll skip my planned "suggestions on what to kill" for the time being and cut to the chase on how I completed that first page. Tunnel Worm 1: 120 xp (120/500) Tunnel Worm 2: 120 xp (240/500) Tunnel Worm 3: 120 xp (360/500) Tunnel Worm 4: 120 xp (480/500) Tunnel Worm 5: 120 xp (600/500 => Level 2 => 100/750) Tunnel Worm 6: 105 xp (205/750) Bonus for completing Page 1: 270 xp (475/750) 270 gil 27 tabs (Total: 582) At this point, I realized I would be leveling quite fast, so I wanted to get the first few spells. If you go to Regine, who is located via a branchway off the path between the Mog House and the Port itself in Port San d'Oria, you can buy the following spells: * Cure, Level 5 * Protect, Level 10 * Shell, Level 20 I bought Banish, which is the level 7 spell for Paladins, off the Auction House for 800gil. Not bad, in my opinion. You can buy Banish from Regine, but only if San d'Oria is not in third place in Conquest. And I bet you can guess why I didn't buy it from her, eh? For the next few levels (until you reach level 7), it's just hack and slash. If you choose to continue down the line like I did, you should complete pages 1-3 with no problem. Beware when you hit level 5 that you gain the ability to Cure yourself (once you use the scroll). Healing at level 5 caps out at 16, which will take some time to get up there. If you find yourself hating the fact that you have a small MP pool to work with (mine was 26 at level 5 as Elvaan), go buy a stack of Pies from the Auction House. I use Apple Pies, since they were 1.5k a stack at San d'Oria's AH on the Fairy server. Apple Pies gave me 25 more MP, enough to run through 6 cures before having to heal. Better than three at a time! It probably sounds very crazy, but I used to be one of those who would cap skills as early as possible after gaining a level.